Deepened Scars
by Hypnos.GodOfSleep
Summary: Trapped in the Echo Chamber. (I wrote this 10 years ago.)


Double D couldn't hold back the emotions anymore and before he knew it, he began choking on his own sadness. He sat all alone on the farthest edge of town. The farthest he could go. The farthest that anyone could go...

The junk yard rested far down below his feet at the very bottom of the cliff he was sitting on. It withheld the bodies of mostly the shells and skeletons of cars and rotting garbage laying quietly in the final resting place of a metallic graveyard.

Someone had eventual come and sat down next to him, but Double D didn't care enough to turn his head to see who it was. Then, he heard the familiar voice.

"Why cry so sad, friend?"

Double D looked over. His good friend Ed was sitting with his legs out and was leaning back allowing his arms to hold up his body.

"Double D sitting all alone. Why, friend? Why you cry so sad?" Ed had a speech disorder, but only slightly. You could understand what he was saying. It was due to a mental condition caused by a traumatic head injury that ended his life.

"I was just thinking about when we were alive..." He looked at the healing scars on his wrist from his moments of weakness. He felt a little better about his death if he took on self-mutilation. It's not that it took the pain away, it was that it let him feel it. He was just glad he could feel anything...

"Oh, Double D!" Ed spoke holding a happy smile as always. "Don't think about that! Think about...Oh! Think about what makes Double D happy! That will help!"

"That's just it, Ed. I want to be alive again. That would make me happy..." Ed frowned. Double D kicked his feet back and forth off the edge in deep thought. "Do you remember what you wanted to be before you died? Like when we grew up?"

"Ooh, of course, yes! I wanted to be a scary movie director person!" Double D could see such joy in the eyes of his dear friend, he just had to smile. "And you wanted to be a scientist! Didn't you, Double D?"

Yes, he did. In fact, that was how he died. Double D was so enthused of the thought of becoming a famous scientist, he worked on projects left and right. However, one day, he had been working on a chemical related experiment in his room, but he had forgotten he left the fire going on the stove when making a special dinner for his family. With the combination of the gases released and the flame on the burning stove, it ignited. Thus, blowing the house and along with him and his family to pieces.

After he awoke, everything was reset back to how it was before. Except his parents were nowhere to be found. They had always left sticky notes around the house to communicate with him because most of the time, their daily schedules never lined up. Despite the parents never being home, the sticky notes around his house remained. They showed up everyday without fail, telling him, 'Wash the dishes' and 'Don't forget to do your homework,' and things of that nature. For awhile, he was thankful that his parents were still trying to contact him even after they had crossed over. However, his depression hit an all time low when he realized the sticky notes were being written by none other than himself. Somehow, his mind blacked out every time he wrote them and never knew he was doing. Not until Rolf, the foreign exchange student, asked Double D in the middle of their conversation why he was putting up so many sticky notes...When he realized this, his mind begun a downward spiral. He didn't move or get out of bed for months on end until Ed and Eddy forced him out of the house.

"At least I made it to high school..." Double D said trying to sound positive. But he drooped his head in shame. "I feel so bad about what I did. It was all my fault..."

"Well, it can't be any worse than Eddy!" Ed laughed thinking back. Oh, yeah. Eddy's story was actually quite sad. However, oddly expected.

Eddy was entirely too obsessed with earning some pointless green slips of paper from innocent people...He met a man one day who was going to offer him an unbelievably large amount money. To Eddy, money was his very own amphetamine. So, it did not matter how suspicious it sounded. After the mysterious man had deposited the money, he told him to do very specific things. Horrible things. Even Eddy wouldn't do things like that...After deep thought on the matter, he told him no. But the man wouldn't take that sitting down. It was rather do the deeds or hand back the money. As expected, Eddy took the money and ran. Only shortly after, he was killed by the man's henchmen. For his brother, after finding out about his kid brother's murder, he tracked down the man who was responsible to avenge the death of his only family. Oddly enough, he was successful.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Double D. "At least Big Bro, Thomas, is still alive..."

"And what about me and baby sister?" The most tragic story of all belonged to that of Ed and his family. Ed's father died at war leaving his mother behind to fend for herself and two children. It started with the first born, Ed's, head injury. Then, the youngest, Sarah. Their deaths were quite tragic. Both of them had been bullied to death in the same school. Ed's head was cracked open when trying to defend his little sister from three teenage boys with sexual intentions. He was wheelchair bound after that and was forced to take special classes at school.

The bullying still continued, however. Somehow, some bullies wheeled Ed to the pool area without anyone seeing, and pushed him into it. He drowned that fateful day. His mother took the case to court, but the judge ruled in favor of the school saying there wasn't any foul play.

Sarah, after the near assault, was bullied instead of being comforted. They made fun of her dead brother by making 'special' gestures and sitting in chairs in a broken manner, mimicking poor Ed. They even called him 'special Ed.' For years, she dealt with this with no help from the school. One day, four years after the death of Ed, a few bullies caught her in the bathroom when she was exiting a stall. They pushed her in and forced her head down the toilet giving her a swirly. But they pushed too hard on her head, snapping her neck. When they finally let go of her, she crumpled to the floor defeated. As for their mother, after finding out about the death of the only child she had left, she hanged herself from the school entrance in front of thousands to make as a tribute to her dear children that had forcefully been taken from this world while no justice had been served.

"I'm so glad you helped Sarah escape those bastard boys..." To Ed, it didn't matter that what he did had suffered him brain damage. Because he knew he would have never forgiven himself if he allowed the ravishing to occur. Including Double D. He may have had suppressed feelings for Sarah, but that was not the only reason why he would have tried anything to stop it. She was only _six_ at the time of the attack.

"What are you trying to prove, Ed? We're dead. There's nothing we can do now. We aren't even allowed to venture passed the junkyard."

"Feel better, Double D. You have _me_ as a friend..."

"...And me." Double D turned to the small voice that sounded behind him. And who could it have been but Sarah. She had a hand outstretched suggesting he should take it. "Come play with me, Double D." He didn't expect what she had said to have hit him so hard. But it did.

Choking back the tears, he grabbed her hand and stood up. As they walked off together side by side, he grabbed her hand again and held on this time, never to let go, as they kept a steady pace toward the sunset.


End file.
